


Legacy

by Livelongandfangirling



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Enterprise
Genre: F/M, Family, Fluff, Found Family, Gen, Post-Canon, Tiny bits of Angst, tags will be updated as this progresses
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2020-07-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:16:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25597150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Livelongandfangirling/pseuds/Livelongandfangirling
Summary: Malcolm Reed comes from a long line of Navy men (as his father never failed to remind him at every point throughout his life). The bridges with his parents are burned when Malcolm joins Starfleet, but eventually the crew of the NX-01 and Starfleet become his family, alongside his sister Madeline. But little does he know just what his tenure in Starfleet would go on to inspire.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	Legacy

**Author's Note:**

> So this fic occurred completely by accident when I was coming with with a family tree and backstory for my OC. The idea of Malcolm inspiring a line of Reed Starfleet women was something I really liked the thought of, and over the course of many weeks, even more ideas (and chatting with the amazing peeps in the Enterprise Stans Discord), I finally came up with this! (Also, becasue I really want Malcolm to be safe an happy for more than five minutes)  
> I'm more than happy to answer any OC questions since there's so much that hasn't made it into this fic (also as this is post-canon some of this will be entirely made up and up and some bits I took from the ENT Beta Canon from the Enterprise Novels which I found on Memory Beta)  
> And the usual disclaimer that I do not own Star Trek or Star Trek Enterprise, all written in good fun!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Madeline Reed, born 14th April 2124, daughter of Mary and Stuart. Civilian (History Teacher)

_22 nd October 2257_

It had been a quiet day so far on Enterprise, thankfully. Mainly due to a combination of the Romulans regrouping, and the fact they were deep in Coalition Space. In fact the past two days had been mostly uneventful, spent either escorting ships or catching up on maintenance and paper work. Which was why Captain Archer had asked Hoshi to set up a comm with London scheduled for a few minutes time.

Now that the Coalition of Planets was firmly in the grips of war with the Romulan Empire, the crew’s personal calls home had been limited to ten minutes every three months. Malcolm was meant to have spoken with his sister three weeks ago, but a Bird of Prey intent on killing them all put a stop to it an hour before hand. Malcolm, like just about everyone else on the ship, couldn’t wait for the whole bloody affair to be over with.

Malcolm coyly checked the time of his watch, an ivory coloured face with gold hands and a deep brown leather strap (his most recent birthday present from his sister), and quickly went back to checking the monitors at his post. He had a few more minutes and for the time being there wasn’t a Romulan in sight.

Almost right on cue at 15:50, Captain Archer emerged from his ready room looking right at Hoshi who gave a small confirmatory nod and a smile.

“Ready when you are Malcolm” Jonathan smiled warmly at his armoury officer, who stood up from his post far quicker than usual. But not a single soul commented on it.

“Thank you, Sir” Malcolm briefly stood at full attention before hurriedly, by his standards, descending the stairs that led to the Captain’s Ready Room. Most officers would take their home calls at Hoshi’s post, but for the officers who preferred their privacy, Captain Archer offered the use of his Ready Room. A hugely generous offer not lost on anyone.

Malcolm pushed the button to open the door and quietly greeted Porthos who was happily lying on his bed in the corner of the room, before fixing his already pristine uniform as he sat down at Archer’s desk. He waited and agonising few seconds before a light on the monitor turned amber, and Malcolm slammed his finger down on the answer button.

Madeline appeared with her usual bright smile that still despite current events reached all the way up to her blue eyes. Her dark blonde hair was tied in a messy ponytail and she wore a chunky cardigan over an ill-fitting blouse that was almost covered in splotches of paint.

“Hi Malcolm” Her voice, usually warm and airy was this time filled with relief. Malcolm had to swallow down a few tears himself before replying, those precious ten minutes were already slipping away.

“Hey Maddie” The sound of his sister laughing at the name he hasn’t used since they were children was more than enough to make the lightyears briefly feel like nothing. “How are you?”

“Good, we finally started decorating the rest of the house today” The house Madeline was referring to, was the Victorian townhouse in London she’d been living in with her partner Carwyn for the past three years. It had been hers ever since she’d moved out of the family home in Brighton not long after the Enterprise first launched. Malcolm had visited it once or twice while on shore leave, and while it needed work that was now finally getting done, there had been brief moments (like the first time Malcolm had stayed over, or when he first met the famous Carwyn, the person who made Madeline so incredibly happy) when it already felt like a home.

“Yes, you have some of the living room wall of your cheek” The shade of peach was so close to Madeline’s skin that it took a while for Malcolm to notice. Madeline laughed as she brought her left hand to her face, and it was then that Malcolm noticed the second, and probably far more notable addition to her sisters’ attire. Three diamonds, one large and two small, set in a thin band of rose gold elegantly resting on the ring finger of her left hand. “Is that-” All it took was his sister’s eyes to fill with tears as her cheeks turned the same shade of red as her cardigan for Malcolm to feel so filled with joy that he might have burst into tears himself.

“Yesterday um… right in the middle of tiling the downstairs bathroom Carwyn just… asked me to marry them” Malcolm felt briefly lost for words, those scraps of good news from home was what kept the crew going during the war. It gave them all something to really fight for. “We haven’t set a date yet, since we both want you there” Madeline added.

“But-”

“No buts” Madeline gave a stern reply as she gently patted her eyes. She straightened herself in her chair and looked squarely at Malcolm. “You’re my family, and you’re going to be Carwyn’s family, so you’re going to come home and _be there_ ” She didn’t fight the tears running down her face this time. An neither did Malcolm. “It just wouldn’t feel right, not without my big brother” Malcolm clenched the free hand that was out of sight under the table so hard his nails briefly dug into his palms. Stupid bloody war.

“Okay” Malcolm nodded; his voice quiet but sure because deep down he knew that he wasn’t going to even think about debating it. His ship, his crew, and now his sister’s wedding added to the list of things he had to live for. “I’m so happy for you” He didn’t have to force a smile as the conversation thankfully turned and ended on a much happier note. Like how Carwyn had spent the past two days fussing over kitchen worktops and dining chairs, and that Aunt Sherry had sent over so much food while the kitchen was being refurbished they had to give most of it away to their neighbours.

They only just managed to squeeze in their goodbyes after Madeline had finished asking about how the crew were before the call was cut off automatically. Malcolm sighed as he leaned back in the Captain’s chair and briefly squeezed his eyes shut, taking a few seconds to compose himself before returning to the bridge.

He returned to his post without fuss, and silently relieved Trip who at some point had appeared from engineering. Malcolm didn’t even notice that he was beaming from ear to ear until Travis pointed it out.

“Good news Sir?” He asked cautiously. Good news was a commodity on Enterprise these days, it spread round the ship like wildfire when it arrived, briefly making life that little bit more bearable. Malcolm looked around at the bridge, all the bridge crew and senior staff were present bar Phlox, but Malcolm assumed that the news would travel down to sickbay fast enough if he didn’t find the time to pass it on himself.

“My sister’s… getting married” He almost didn’t quite believe it when he told the bridge, but it firmly sank in when a wave of smiles and quiet applause rippled its way through the bridge. The crew were slightly muted at the fact that the ceremony would not be taking place until Malcolm would be back on Earth. But the Captain still asked Malcolm to pass on congratulation on behalf of the crew (which, he’d already done).

After about ten minutes the bridge returned to normal, with Trip promising Malcolm a beer from his personal stash to celebrate the occasion as he left for engineering.

_3 rd March 2160_

Malcolm sighed as he got up from his seat at the kitchen table, heading for the front door. He walked through the living room and under the arch that led into the hallway and opened the front door. He was briefly surprised at who was stood on the other side before his face split into a wide grin.

“Trip!”

“Hey Malcolm” Commander Tucker stood happily on the doorstep in his civvies holding a covered dish in his hands. “I know I didn’t call ahead, but I brought something for the happy couple” Malcolm waved his friend’s concerns away and gladly let him in.

“It’s alright Maddie and Carwyn were fine with me having visitors, Travis and Hoshi were over a couple of nights ago” Malcolm had almost jumped at the chance to housesit while the newlyweds were off on their honeymoon in the Brecon Beacons. The second Trip had stepped through the door he craned his neck to look up the stairwell, and gave an approving hum.

“You said they did most of the stuff themselves?”

“Carwyn was a carpenter before they started teaching, and Madeline’s always been able to learn anything after five minutes” Suddenly a memory resurfaced of a five-year-old Madeline showing a twelve-year-old Malcolm how to use the comm system to call their Uncle Archie, Malcolm chuckled lightly and showed Trip into the living room. “You should see the library on the top floor it’s beautiful”

“I wish I could stay long, but I wanna be back at spacedock before tomorrow to carry on with repairs”

“How is Enterprise?” Malcolm asked cautiously. Their beloved ship while not left totally worse for wear after the Battle of Cheron, wasn’t ready to get back out exploring either. There had been some small whispers that she was to be decommissioned according to Hoshi, but Captain Archer was apparently in the middle of pleading with Starfleet to save his ship just a little bit longer. It was why for the past three weeks Trip had been practically living at spacedock in an effort to prove Enterprise salvageable.

“Not as bad as we thought, still needs a lot of TLC. But not ready for the scrapheap just yet” Malcolm let out a small sigh of relief at his friends’ words, and showed him into the kitchen. “I wasn’t sure what to bring over… Carwyn’s not allergic to pecans is he?” Malcolm shook his head, happily reassuring his friend that he still held the Reed family allergy record. Trip sighed with relief and carefully put the pie in the fridge, almost treating it with the same care he would a plasma injector.

“That your Mum’s?”

“I’ll have ya know, _Lieutenant_ , that I made it myself” Trip, who looked very offended, folded his arms across his chest and leaned against the counter after gently closing the fridge door.

As expected, Trip could only stay for a cup of coffee, but he didn’t leave until Malcolm had remembered to pass on Madeline’s invite to the senior staff of dinner at the house when everyone was free. And almost a month later, a few days after the official declaration that the Romulan War was over, the NX-01 Senior Staff found themselves celebrating at Madeline and Carwyn’s Dining Table.

Madeline was almost completely overwhelmed by the crew’s generosity of dinner party favours (Sakura Mochi from Hoshi, a large cannister of Vulcan Spice Tea from T’Pol that was also a belated wedding present, a bouquet of Peonies from Phlox, wine from Travis and Jonathan, and another Pecan Pie from Trip) that the soup almost boiled over (luckily for the soup Carwyn was close enough to reach the oven in a few rapid paces).

Madeline carefully placed the bouquet in a vase and set it on the coffee table, and managed to find space for everything else on the kitchen table before leading everyone through the kitchen and into the adjoining dining room that she’d spent the past two hours fussing over.

By the time the soup bowls had been almost licked clean, Madeline had finally settled down enough to enjoy everyone’s company. She asked T’Pol about what would go best with Vulcan tea, Phlox about Denobulan cuisine, and Travis about just how you pilot a starship. In turn Jonathan asked how Carwyn and Madeline both found their teaching jobs, and of course everyone was desperate to hear about the wedding, which Carwyn was more than happy to babble about for minutes.

Conversation and laughter continued to fill the dining room well past after everyone had finished their desserts, and even spilled over into the living room where somehow all nine of them managed to squeeze themselves across the two sofas and one armchair that took up most of the space. Thankfully the night was just about warm enough that no one felt the need to light the newly restored fireplace while everyone sipped on cups of various Earth and Vulcan teas and coffees.

At some point the NX-01 senior staff regretfully had the leave the Reed home, all promising that they would stop by the next time they were in London, and would be more than happy to have the Reeds over for dinner whenever anyone had a space in their diary.

Madeline sighed as she fell onto the sofa next to her brother while Carwyn offered to make everyone another round of hot drinks (Trip and Jonathan, being the gentlemen that they were, had already seen to the dishes before they left).

“Oh, it was so nice to finally meet them all” Madeline said with a sweet smile. “I mean given all that you’ve told me about them over the years they almost felt like family already!” Malcolm gave a small chuckle and sunk down a little further into the sofa.

Family, that one word that had almost plagued Malcolm for most of his early life. For a long time it literally just extended to Madeline and his Aunts and Uncles, but over the past eight and a half years, that elusive circle had widened. And that six-letter word didn’t feel like a grey cloud hanging over his head anymore.

“I’m… I’m sorry if I’ve ever been an awful brother” Malcolm blurted out as he looked at the rug under his feet.

“What?” He could feel Madeline turn to look at him, probably with her mouth slightly agape and her eyebrows halfway up her forehead. “Malcolm what on Earth put that idea into your head?” Honestly, he wasn’t even sure he could pin it down to one specific thing.

“I…” He waved his hands in the air, and let out a long sigh when he couldn’t find the right words. Suddenly he felt arms wrap tightly around his shoulders, and he could almost hear his sister frown.

“You’re such a wonderful brother Malcolm” The small crack in Madeline’s voice finally brought Malcolm to look at her. Her head was titled to the side so she could look at him properly with her lips pursed together in an effort to fight away any tears. “Remember when I fell and hurt my knee on my first day of school, and when you found out you ran over from the other side of the playground and refused to leave my side until you knew I was okay?” Malcolm nodded, he could still after all those years recall that day almost crystal clear in his mind. “And how when you left for Starfleet you sent me so many pictures with your monthly letters” Madeline stopped to let out a quiet sniffle. “And when I introduced you to Carwyn the first thing you did was welcome him into the family” That had been an Autumn afternoon in San Francisco during shore leave, not one Malcolm was going to rush to forget either. “I feel so lucky to have you as my big brother” At some point tears had started leaking out of Malcolm’s eyes and he quietly swept them away. He just smiled and said nothing as Carwyn brought though two steaming mugs and set them down in front of the weepy Reed siblings.

“I made up your room for you” At some point, the bedroom on the top floor next to the library had stopped being called the spare room and officially referred to as Malcolm’s. While he now considered quarters on a starship home (officially he had was used to be the family home as his official residence on Earth) it had been made clear to Malcolm on many occasions, that he now had a home in London too.

_Stardate 2163.222 (10 th August 2163)_

“Another day in the fleet” Travis sighed, walking out of the Captain’s mess alongside Malcolm with his trademark grin. Malcolm just huffed a small laugh and shook his head as he tucked his hands behind his back.

“I’m beginning to think you’re enjoying being my first officer a little too much”

“Oh, come on Sir…” The two men looked at each other and laughed before Malcolm pulled back the cuff of his uniform to check his watch, it had just gone 0800, meaning it would be 4 in the afternoon in London. “Any word from home?”

“I called them yesterday afternoon, still nothing. But Maddie’s fine which is the most important bit” Malcolm sighed again, running a hand down his face. Travis, armed with his endless store of positivity, clapped Malcolm on the shoulder and carried on beaming at his Captain.

“Well while we wait for you to officially become an Uncle I guess the Pioneer will have to do” Travis dramatically sighed as he stopped to pat a nearby bulkhead.

“Captain, Uncle… whatever next” Malcolm huffed and carried on his walk to the bridge.

The USS Pioneer was currently in orbit around Tellar stocking up on supplies before heading out for the next leg of their exploration mission. Malcolm had been surprised at just how quickly he’d taken to having his own command, he was still figuring out just what kind of Captain he wanted to be with his crew, but he knew that he would figure it out eventually before too long.

“So how long do-” Before Travis could finish his question, the sound of the ship’s comm officer running through the deck stopped them both in their tracks.

“Captain! Captain Reed!” Lieutenant Howard appeared from one of the adjoining corridors sprinting towards her Captain and First Officer, clutching a PADD in her hand. “Lieutenant Commander Mayweather, Captain Reed” She stood to attention before sticking the PADD out towards Malcolm panting for breath. “Just came in for you Sir” Malcolm took the PADD and dismissed the Lieutenant, who for some reason looked quite pleased.

As Lieutenant Howard disappeared Malcolm went to read the message on the PADD, and after the first few words he felt like bursting into tears of joy.

_She finally arrived!! Madeline and the little one are doing absolutely fine, sadly this picture will have to do until your next shore leave (or knowing Maddie until Caroline is big enough to travel)._

_We know you’re busy so just call us when you can. Hope Starfleet didn’t take too long in getting this to you!_

_Carwyn_

_PS – If you can’t reach us at home then try the hospital._

Malcolm hastily scrolled down to look at the picture of Madeline cradling her newborn daughter with Carwyn by her side. The picture had probably been taken by Aunt Sherry since it was at an odd angle, but Malcolm didn’t mind in the slightest. Below the picture was a copy of the birth record Carwyn had sent attached to the message.

_Caroline Rebecca Reed, born 10 th August 2163 at 15:12. St George’s Hospital, London, Earth._

“Attention all hands this is First Officer Mayweather, I am very happy to announce that as of today Captain Reed is an Uncle to a little baby girl” Travis, who had obviously read the PADD over Malcolm’s shoulder, spoke into the nearest comm panel. A little way down the corridor they both heard the sound of clapping as Malcolm tucked the PADD under his arm as he let Travis crush him in a huge hug.

“We have to tell everyone!” Travis exclaimed, already juggling Earth, Vulcan and Denobulan time zones in his head as he worked how fast Jonathan, T’Pol, Trip, Hoshi and Phlox would all get the news. Malcolm happily let Travis worry about it while he re-read the message and looked at the picture of Madeline holding little baby Caroline.


End file.
